The Trees of San Francisco

By Michael Sullivan

Trees of San Francisco introduces readers to the rich variety of trees that thrive in San Francisco's unique conditions. San Francisco's cool Mediterranean climate has made it home to interesting and unusual trees from all over the world - trees as colorful and exotic as the city itself.

This new guide combines engaging descriptions of sixty-five different trees with color photos that reflect the visual appeal of San Francisco. Each page covers a different tree, with several paragraphs of interesting text accompanied by one or two photos. Each entry for a tree also lists locations where "landmark" specimens of the tree can be found. Interspersed throughout the book are sidebar stories of general interest related to San Francisco's trees. Trees of San Francisco also includes a dozen tree tours that will link landmark trees and local attractions in interesting San Francisco neighborhoods such as the Castro, Pacific Heights and the Mission - walks that will appeal to tourists as well as Bay Area natives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilderness Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9780899977447

Michael Sullivan

Enter the Author Bio(s) here.

Book preview

To Paul and Joe—without your patience and support, there would be no Trees of San Francisco. With love and gratitude, I dedicate this book to you.

The Trees of San Francisco

Copyright © 2013 Michael J. Sullivan

Maps: Mike Sullivan and Steve Jones

Cover design and layout: Scott McGrew

Book design adapted by: Annie Long

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sullivan, Michael, 1969-

Trees of San Francisco /Mike Sullivan. — Second edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-89997-743-0 — ISBN 0-89997-743-X

1. Trees—California—San Francisco—Identification. 2. Trees—California—San Francisco—Pictorial works. 3. Trees—California—San Francisco—Guidebooks. 4. San Francisco (Calif.)—Guidebooks. I. Title.

QK149.S85 2013

582.1609794'61—dc23

2013031360

eISBN: 978-0-89997-744-7

Manufactured in the United States of America

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Second edition, first printing

First edition originally published by Pomegranate Communications, Inc., 2004.

Published by: Wilderness Press

c/o Keen Communications

P.O. Box 43673

Birmingham, AL 35243

[phone]; fax [phone]

[e-mail]

wildernesspress.com

Visit our website for a complete listing of our books and for ordering information.

Cover photos: Nathan Brewer (back: bottom); Jaime Pandolfo (front: center, center right, and bottom left); Matt Ritter (front: center left); Mike Sullivan (front: top left, top right, and bottom right; back: top)

Interior photos by Mike Sullivan except as noted here: © Chloe Atkins: 6 (bottom), 72 (bottom); Mark Bittner: 24; Nathan Brewer: 22 (top), 47 (center right), 56 (top), 57; Friends of the Urban Forest: 151; Paul Loeffler: 160; Jaime Pandolfo: iv (left), viii, 1, 4, 5 (top), 6 (top), 7, 12 (top), 33 (bottom), 35 (top), 36 (top), 37 (bottom), 42 (top), 45 (bottom), 50 (top), 60, 62 (top), 63 (bottom), 64 (top), 67 (bottom), 69–70, 72 (top), 74, 76 (top), 78 (bottom), 80; Metsaq (Joey)/Flickr.com: 16 (bottom); Matt Ritter: 3 (bottom), 12 (bottom), 13 (bottom), 18 (bottom), 19 (top), 21 (bottom); 22 (bottom), 23 (bottom), 28 (bottom), 31 (bottom), 34 (bottom), 40, 43 (top), 52 (bottom), 54, 63 (top), 64 (bottom), 66 (bottom), 68 (top), 71 (top), 78 (top), 81 (top), 83 (bottom)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations used in reviews.

SAFETY NOTICE: Although Wilderness Press and the author have made every attempt to ensure that the information in this book is accurate at press time, they are not responsible for any loss, damage, injury, or inconvenience that may occur to anyone while using this book. You are responsible for your own safety and health while viewing the trees or following the walking trips described here.

table of CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

About This Second Edition

Preface

Introduction

The Trees

Sidelights

The Down Under Connection

Mary Ellen Pleasant and Her Blue Gums

Don’t Do This!

Our Wild Parrots and Their Chosen Trees

An Ancient Aromatic, or the Stinko Ginkgo

San Francisco’s Top 20

Pat Montandon’s Angel of Hope

My Favorite Tree

Artist Rigo 23: One Tree

The Secret Garden of Victor Reiter

Potrero Hill Pilgrimage

Mike’s Wish List

Friends of the Urban Forest

San Francisco Trees Walking Tours

1. Castro and Eureka Valley

2. Cole Valley

3. Financial District

4. Forest Hill

5. Golden Gate Park Panhandle

6. The Mission

7. Noe Valley

8. Pacific Heights

9. Parnassus Heights

10. Potrero Hill

11. The Presidio

12. Upper Market Staircases

Landmark Trees

Selected Bibliography

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I WOULD like to thank the many people who helped me write this book. Arthur Lee Jacobson, author of Trees of Seattle, first suggested the idea, and he was generous with his time in reviewing the original manuscript. Matt Ritter and Jason Dewees—both tree professionals who have likely forgotten more about trees than I will ever know—answered countless questions and helped me identify rare and unusual members of San Francisco’s urban forest. Jaime Pandolfo provided much of the photography in the first edition of The Trees of San Francisco, and Matt Ritter and Nathan Brewer added beautiful images for this second edition. Dan Flanagan, Doug Wildman, and others from Friends of the Urban Forest have made that organization’s wealth of data available to me, and have helped in numerous other ways. Mark Bittner, Rigo 23, and the family of Victor Reiter contributed information and content to these pages. Peter Ehrlich, forester at the Presidio Trust, added details for the Presidio walking tour. Michele Palmer, Sid Silverman, Ted Kipping, Drew Dara-Abrams, Karla Nagy, Evan Martin, Meena Tappouni, Adrianne Jang, Samuel Clay, Brittany Janis, and Gordon Matassa made valuable suggestions for the walking tours and sidebar stories.

About This Second Edition

SOME 10 years have passed since the first edition of this book was published, and much can change in a decade, of course. My own family tree has grown, as I had dedicated the first edition to my son, Joseph, a few months before he was born. Now he is an engaging nine-year-old, and a lover of trees—especially of what he calls his tree, the thriving soapbark (Quillaja saponaria) that we planted in front of our house the week of his birth.

Ten years also have brought change to San Francisco’s evolving urban forest. More than a few of the trees that I highlighted in the first edition are no longer with us. Sadly, they’ve been victims of windstorms, truck collisions, disease, and old age. But the passage of a decade also allows this second edition to showcase new species, younger trees coming into their prime, and some jewels that had escaped my attention until recently (see for a great example of that). For any of you who are first-edition readers, and whose copy is worn and dog-eared, you’ll appreciate knowing that this new book offers many more close-up photos and five additional tree-focused walking tours (for a new total of 12). You’ll also enjoy an updated mix of short features, or sidelights, that take you deeper into San Francisco’s urban-forest history, culture, and idiosyncrasies.

Like its first-edition predecessor, The Trees of San Francisco is not a field guide, and it won’t overwhelm you with botanical vocabulary. It does, however, provide both common and scientific names for each tree, details of general interest, and some surprising facts about various species.

Rather than an exhaustive list of all the trees to be found in San Francisco, this collection presents in text and images the city’s most representative array. The entries appear in alphabetical order according to each tree’s common name, with its scientific name prominently displayed as well. Two or more photos accompany each entry, and captions pinpoint the locations of the trees depicted, making it easy for readers to visit them.

Interspersed among the entries for the trees, you will see the 13 Sidelights mentioned above. These brief features will inform and entertain you with unique stories or aspects about San Francisco’s trees, tree lovers, and tree origins.

In addition, on pages 86–136, the book leads you on 12 self-guided tours into diverse tree-rich neighborhoods. Following Walking Tours, you will come to Landmark Trees, which I humbly submit as my own list of the city’s most noteworthy and eye-catching trees. To make them easier to visit, I’ve grouped them within 23 neighborhoods that range from residential to commercial, and from waterfront to wooded.

All in all, if you liked the first edition, I think you’ll love the second!

Preface

WRITING this book allowed me to combine two passions: trees and San Francisco.

Although I’m a botany amateur, I’ve always had a love for trees. I grew up in the hardwood forests of upstate New York, with maples, beeches, birches, and oaks; palm trees were things you saw on television in exotic vacation locales (like California). So when I moved to San Francisco in 1984, I was delighted to discover an entire urban forest that was almost completely alien to me—full of trees with strange shapes, exotic scents, unusual bark, colorful flowers, and leaves that stayed on the trees year-round. The one unifying feature among all these species was their unfamiliarity.

A few years later, I began volunteering with San Francisco’s nonprofit Friends of the Urban Forest. Over many years of Saturday-morning plantings and tree-care days with this organization, I became acquainted with the exotic varieties from around the world that have found their way to San Francisco’s streets and parks. As I got to know the city’s trees, I became familiar with their stories: their origins, histories, smells, textures and shapes, reproductive tricks, and relationships with Homo sapiens.

Like many before me, my immediate attachment to San Francisco had been partly visual—a reaction to the sheer physical beauty of its hilly, waterfront setting. But over time, the real attraction became the neighborhoods—unique, bohemian, beautiful, vibrant communities, each with a distinctive personality, and eminently walkable. I have enjoyed countless hours exploring the streets of San Francisco. Often my only purpose was the joy of discovery, enhanced by my growing appreciation of the city’s unique assortment of street trees. Each block had the potential for something new, and just as some people delight in coming upon a stunning Victorian home, a thriving Ginkgo biloba did the same for me.

I hope this book brings the same joy to those of you who live here and to those who are visiting. For San Franciscans, this book offers an easy opportunity to learn about the trees you pass by every day, trees that form the living part of our outdoor architecture. For the tourist (especially if you’re from the land of maples and beeches, like me), this book can open a door to the new and the exotic.

Introduction

TREES can have a hard time in San Francisco. Before the arrival of the Spanish to the Bay Area in the late 18th century, San Francisco was largely treeless. Only a few live oaks and willows huddled in wind-sheltered valleys interrupted the expanse between the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. In fact, according to historian Hubert Bancroft, the Spanish explorers described the area as the very worst place [for settlement] in all California … since the peninsula afforded neither lands, timber, wood, nor water, nothing but sand and brambles and raging winds. To understand what the city looked like in its natural state 200 years ago, just gaze across the Golden Gate to the Marin Headlands, where you’ll see grassy, windswept hills—and no trees.

San Francisco’s urban forest is a relatively recent phenomenon. Early tree-planting efforts focused almost exclusively on public parks. Beginning in 1870, the creation of Golden Gate Park out of acres of sand dunes was the most ambitious of these efforts. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park, submitted an early plan for a great city park in 1865. His design was rejected, and Olmsted later warned: There is not a full grown tree of beautiful proportions near San Francisco, nor have I seen any young trees that promised fairly, except, perhaps, certain compact clumpy forms of evergreens, wholly wanting in grace and cheerfulness. It would not be wise nor safe to undertake to form a park upon any plea which assumed as a certainty that trees which would delight the eye can be made to grow near San Francisco. In spite of Olmsted’s warnings, the city persevered. The design job went to 24-year-old William Hammond Hall (later the park’s first superintendent), and Golden Gate Park became the celebrated heart of San Francisco’s urban forest.

Despite early successes creating tree-filled parks, San Franciscans left their streets bare for many more years. Look at any photograph of the city’s neighborhoods as recently as the 1960s, and the lack of trees will be striking. Things began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s when San Francisco (a center of the growing environmental movement) began city-sponsored street tree plantings in the neighborhoods. City arborists involved with the new program had to learn, through trial and (frequently) error, which trees would thrive in San Francisco’s unique climate and topography. Early tree-planting efforts focused on a very few trees (ficus, blackwood acacia, Myoporum, and others) selected for their rapid growth rates and tolerance of coastal conditions. Unfortunately, many of these fast-growing trees quickly developed into green monsters that buckled sidewalks, crowded narrow street setbacks, and (unforgivable in San Francisco) blocked views.

In 1981, things